The same tracklog is displayed in the map below as blue dots, clockwise direction:
- Starting point of the walk is Sundial Carpark.
- Red arrow: Short detour to a nondescript lookout (But the view from Lakeview Lookout is better.)
- South-east of the red arrow is Lakeview Lookout - the main objective of this walk.

In summary, the circuit route is:
- Start at Sundial Carpark at end of Sundial Road.
- Walk in a clockwise direction, follow the blue dots to Lakeview Lookout.
- Then towards Sundial Carpark

(Afterwards, to Sundial Peak and Mt Rosea ... trip report will be written up soon.)

Timeline & Distance

Park car at Sundial Carpark, at end of Sundial Road, Bellfield.

08:16 0.0 km Start walking to Lakeview Lookout in a clockwise circuit.
08:22 0.5 km At a junction at Devils Gap - One foot track goes to Lakeview Lookout. The other keep on going to Pinnacle.
08:32 0.9 km At a nondescript lookout which is off the main foot track (red arrow of the above map)
08:41 1.3 km At Lakeview Lookout

08:44 1.35km Leave Lakeview Lookout
08:50 1.85km At a junction very close to Sundial Carpark
- One foot track goes to Sundial Peak ... this is where I'll be going next.
- The other returns to Sundial Carpark 50 meters north-ish.

1) This is where I park the car, at Sundial Carpark at end of Sundial Road, Bellfield.
- It is a reaonable sized carpark
- Red circle: My car

2) First, I head in the direction of Pinnacle, Wonderland Carpark and Halls Gap. (In about 500 meters, at Devils Gap, I'll turn right to go to Lakeview Lookout.)

To Lakeview Lookout

3) Various conditions of the foot track

4) Plenty of these small white flower by the side of the track ~~~
If you know its name, please let me know.

5) Plenty of big boulders like this in the Grampians National Park

Detour to a nondescript lookout

6) Taking a detour to a nondescript lookout by scrambling down this steep incline ~~~
I'm looking back up the slope after scrambling down. (The picture doesn't quite show it ... it is steep.)

7) The lookout is a few more steps further down from where the previous pic was taken.
View from the lookout is nice ... but not as nice as the one from Lakeview Lookout ... so, not worth the trouble of detouring to here :-)
- Left red arrow: Boronia Peak ... towards north-east
- Right red arrow: Lake Fyans

8) Cliffs at where the lookout is

At junction to Lakeview Lookout

Detour is over.

9) Now at a 3-way junction ~~~
- Left yellow dots: To Sundial Carpark and Sundial Peak ... this is also the shorter way from Sundial Carpark to here. However, I took the longer route, from the right yellow dots.
- Middle set of dots: To Lakeview Lookout
- Right set of dots: Where I came from

Lakeview Lookout

10) (Photo taken in late afternoon ... I forgot to mention ... I'm back here again to take another look after climbing Sundial Peak and Mt Rosea.)
- Red oval: Lakeview Lookout
- Red circle: 3 young women sitting there.
- Red arrow: Later on, I'll climb up this rock.

11) (Photo taken in late afternoon)
Closer to the lookout: (To enlarge the image, click on it.)
- The 2 pics below are continuation to the left/right of each other.
- Red Oval: The lookout and the women

12) (Photo taken in late afternoon)
- This is it ... Lakeview lookout.
- Red circle: 3 women are sitting there.

Scenery from Lakeview Lookout

13) The 2 pics below form a 180-degree panorama from Lakeview Lookout ... centered towards east (The pics are taken in the morning.) ~~~
- Upper pic: The 3 red arrows point to, from left to right:
1 Lake Londsdale
2 Boronia Peak
3 Lake Fyans
- Lower pic: (Continuation to the right of the upper pic)
• Red arrow: Sundial Peak ... Will go on to climb it after Lakeview Lookout ... Trip report will be written up soon.
• The large body of water here is Bellfield Lake. The white colour at the larger end of the lake is due to reflection of the morning sunlight.

14) (Continuation to the right of the previous pic)
- The 2 red arrows point to, from left to right:
1 Sundial Peak
2 I'll climb to the top of this rock in the late afternoon. It is the same rock pointed to by the red arrow in photo #10.
- Yellow arrows: After Lakeview lookout, I'll go on to climb Sundial Peak. The route will be along these arrows.

15) (Photo taken in late afternoon)
(To enlarge the image, click on it.)
I'm back here again in the late afternoon and take this pic which is similar to photo #13:
- The main body of water here is Bellfield Lake.
- The 4 red arrows point to, from left to right:
1 Lake Londsdale
2 Boronia Peak
3 Lake Fyans
4 Sundial Peak

16) (Photo taken in late afternoon)
Zooming into Bellfield Lake

17) (Photo taken in late afternoon)
Next, I climb up this rock by the side of the lookout ... same as the one under the right red arrow in photo #14.

18) (Photo taken in late afternoon)
From the top of the rock in the previous pic, I snap the 2 photos below, plus photo #19.
- Upper pic: The young women
- Lower pic: The 3 red arrows point to, from left to right:
1 Lake Londsdale
2 Boronia Peak
3 Lake Fyans

19) (Continuation to the right of previous pic)
(Photo taken in late afternoon)
(To enlarge the image, click on it.)
- Left red arrow: Lake Fyans
- Right red arrow: Sundial Peak
- The main body of water at the centre of the pic: Bellfield Lake.

Towards Sundial Carpark

20) After leaving Lakeview Lookout, I notice these interesting cliffs located a few steps past the 3-way junction in photo #9 and heading towards Sundial Carpark.
- The 2 pics below are of the same cliffs.

Post Script

Then I go on to climb Sundial Peak and Mt Rosea. Photos and trip report will be written up soon.

As is the case with most 1700-meter plus peaks in ACT, the view from the summit is excellent. But to get there is not so simple ... fair amount of scrub bashing is required. The scrub is not as thick as to Mt Kelly and Mt Namadgi. But still, it is thick enough to make you want to cry :-)

It took Neilson and I 13 hours for the return trip. We are slow. Fast climbers can complete it in less than 10 hours.

Map 4: Continuation to the bottom left of previous map:
Two red arrows point to, from left to right:
1 Mt Mavis summit, 1711 meters (bottom left corner)
2 Cross Rendezvous Creek here

Map 5: Zooming into the grey square of Map 3 ~~~
- Red line: Our GPS tracklog
- 2 blue arrows on the right: Forward trip to Mt Mavis ... This part is bushbashing.
- 3 blue arrows on the left: Forward trip to Mt Mavis ... This part is bushbashing.
- 3 green arrows on the left: Return trip to carpark ... Along a foot track
- 3 green arrows on the right: Return trip to carpark ... Edge of a swampy area along Nursery Creek ... Quite dry and easy to walk on when we are there.
- Short blue dotted line: From satellite image, there should be a foot track inside the bush along the dotted line. We reach the right end of it at 7:11am and should have continue on. But we miss it and end up bushbashing for a while, until we meet up with the foot track marked by the left-most green arrow :-(

17:34 12.7 km Cross Rendezvous Creek.
18:33 15.15km Can't find the foot track, so we veer south. Actually the foot track is simply straight ahead :-)
18:46 15.4 km Same spot as at 07:11 ... We decide to walk along edge of a swampy area on south side of Nursery Crk.
19:00 15.85km Meet up with Nursery Swamp Walking Track.
19:31 17.85km Back at Nursery Swamp Carpark.

==============================================

Total: 13 hrs 13 mins
17.85km Distance is from Google Earth
Distance is from my Garmin GPS is about 10% more

Water

It is a hot day - 37 degrees in Canberra, cooler in the mountains. I took 4 litres of water. That turns out to be not sufficient. I end up drinking 5 litres of water. The other litre is from Rendezvous Creek, on the way back to the car.

Pictures: Orroral Campground - the night before

1) The night before, I camped at Orroral Campground (Orroral Road, Rendezvous Creek, ACT 2620).
It is a nice campground. The building you can see here is the toilet block.

2) Found these 2 small orange beetles at Orroral Campground ~~~
Please let me know their name.
They were like this all the time ... and walking around too, not standing still !

Nursery Swamp Carpark

3) Early morning the next day, we park our cars at Nursery Swamp Carpark by the side of Orroral Road, about 3km north-west of Orroral Campground.
It is a small carpark. My car is on the left. Neilson's car is on the right.

Nursery Swamp Walking Track

4) The trailhead to Mt Mavis is across Orroral Road, just opposite the carpark.
- Red square: Enlarged in the lower pic ... the sign says
Nursery
Swamp
Walking Track
8.5 kms return
4 hours
- Yellow arrow: We'll walk on the Nursery Swamp Walking Track, but not all the way to Nursery Swamp.

5) A few paces into the Nursery Swamp Walking Track is a metal box. Inside is a log book for hikers to register their walks.

6) Various parts of the Nursery Swamp Walking Track

7) Still on the Nursery Swamp Walking Track ... looking back at Neilson ~~~
Neilson is checking our GPS position on his phone. He is saying that I've gone too far. At where he is standing, we should go off track towards Mt Mavis. He is right.

To Rendezvous Creek

8) So, we've gone off-track, not enjoying the bushbashing.

9) Then we come to a swampy area of Nursery Creek. It hasn't rained for a while, hence we can walking across it without getting our boots wet.
Time now is 7:11am. Here, if we now keep going straight (towards west), we could have meet up with a foot track. Instead we veer south and end up doing some unnecessary bushbashing :-( ... Scroll back to see Map #5.

10) After some unnecessary bushbashing, we encounter a foot track.
I wonder who would want to create this track?
It leads to Rendezvous Creek ... but hardly anyone goes there !
Furthermore, someone had sprayed some tree trunks with blue paint to show the way. Was the blue paint meant for an event held sometime ago?

11) There are also these packets hanging on tree branches. Was there a race or orienteering event held here ???

12) Almost at Rendezvous Creek, the flat area in this pic ~~~
At last, we can see Mt Herlt 1615 meters (left red arrow) and Mt Mavis 1711 meters (right red arrow) ... we couldn't see them earlier.

Rendezvous Creek

13) At Rendezvous Creek ~~~
Still a long way to Mt Mavis

14) It is a swampy area along Rendezvous Creek. The swamp is quite dry when we cross it.
- Red arrow: Mt Mavis

15) Shortly after crossing Rendezvous Creek is this nice camp site.

Bushbashing up Mt Mavis slope

16) The foot track ends at Rendezvous Creek.
After crossing the creek and the swamp, the serious climbing starts, and it is bushbashing ... not pleasant.

17) Despite the pretty yellow flowers, this type of bush is difficult to bash through.

18) Boulders on Mt Mavis slope

19) More boulders on Mt Mavis slope

20) If you know the name of this flower, please let me know.

21) If you know the name of this blue flower, please let me know.

22) If you know the name of this flower, please let me know.

23) A bleeding gum tree

24) View from north-west to north-east while we are quite close to the top of Mt Mavis ~~~
- Upper pic, 4 red arrows from left to right:
1 Interesting rocky top, 1.2/1.3 km along a ridge to the north-north-west of Mt Mavis
2 Tidbinbilla Mountain
3 Camels Hump ... towards north-ish
4 Orroral Hill
- Lower pic: Zooming in towards the interesting rocky top (upper pic's first red arrow from the left)

Climbing up a pile of boulders

25) We reach a pile of boulders ... We thought the top of which is the summit.

26) Neilson climbing up the pile of boulders of the previous pic

27) Higher up we climb ~~~
- Red arrow: The top is there.
- Yellow arrows: The way to climb up, as Neilson has already done. But don't ask me how I manage to do it too ... I can't remember ... it is vertical ! :-)

28) Compare to the previous pic, the rest is easy :-)
- Red arrow: The top is there.

30) To our chagrin, towards south-east, we find the summit of Mt Mavis is much further away, over there, not here :-( ...

Climbing down the pile of boulders

31) ... Not to worry, we simply climb down the boulders and head towards the summit :-)

To Mt Mavis summit

32) We are on our way to the summit of Mt Mavis ... passing through a gap between the boulders.

33) We can see it ... the summit of Mt Mavis.

Climbing up to Mt Mavis summit

34) Now very close to the summit of Mt Mavis ... the red arrow

35) The final climb ... it is steep, but there is enough hand-holds to haul yourself up.

At Mt Mavis summit

36) We are at the summit of Mt Mavis ... sort of ... see photo #37.

37) This pic and photo #38 form a 360-degree panorama.
- The 10 red arrows point to, from left to right:
1 Ginger Ale
2 Mt Gingera ... towards north-west
3 Little Ginini
4 Mt Ginini
5 I thought I'm at the summit of Mt Mavis ... but wait, isn't this big boulder higher? ... perhaps just by 1 meter? Anyway, I'm happy to reach where I am now. And I'm claiming I've climbed to the summit of Mt Mavis :-)
6 Tidbinbilla Mountain
7 Tidbinbilla Peak
8 John's peak
9 Camels Hump ... towards north
10 Pierce Hill
- Red oval: The pile of boulders here is the same as the one in photo #29.
- I can't figure out where in this pic is the pile of boulders we climbed in photos #28. It should be in front of the red oval, and should form a straight line to the oval and to Ginger Ale. But where is the pile of boulders ???

38) Continuation to the right of previous pic ~~~
- Upper pic:
• Red oval: Nursery Swamp ... towards east-ish
• The 3 red arrows point to, from left to right:
1 Camels Hump ... towards north
2 Orroral Hill
3 Mt Tennent
- Middle pic: Continuation to the right of the upper pic
• The 3 red arrows point to, from left to right:
1 Mt Gudgenby
2 Sentry Box eastern (highest) peak ... towards south
3 Mt Burgbidge
• Photo #39 zooms into the right half of this pic.
- Lower pic: Continuation to the right of the Middle pic
• The 3 red arrows point to, from left to right:
1 Mt Namadgi ... towards south-west
2 Mt Murray ... towards west
3 Bimberi Peak
• The long flat area below and to the right of Mt Namadgi is Big Creamy Flats.
• Mt Kelly & Mt Scabby are blocked by Mt Namadgi, hence can't be seen from here.
- Continuation to the right of the lower pic is photo #37, thus completing a 360-degree panorama.

39) Of particular interest to me is the right half of the middle pic of photo #38 ... because three weeks ago, I climbed Mt Gudgenby.
The 4 red arrows point to, from left to right:
1 Yankee Hat
2 Mt Gudgenby
3 Sentry Box eastern (highest) peak ... towards south
4 Mt Burgbidge

Climbing down Mt Mavis summit

40) Time to climb down Mt Mavis summit ~~~
Here is Neilson in action :-)

We then try to climb the big boulder in the middle of photo #37. I think it is climbable though not easy. As we are a bit short of time if we want to return to the car before dark, so we make a half-hearted attempt, then abort the climb :-(

Nursery Creek

41) We've retraced our steps down Mt Mavis slope, crossed Rendezvous Creek, and are now at a swampy area of Nursery Creek.
This pic is taken not too far from photo #9. In fact, you can match some features of the hill on the left side of this pic with that of photo #9.

42) Continuation to the left of the previous pic ~~~
Kangaroos

43) About 150 meters further along Nursery Creek, we come to this small fenced off area on the edge of the swampy area.
One side of the enclosure has a small gate (red circle).
In the Comment Section, Teddy Wombat said it is a feral pig trap ... thanks Teddy Wombat !

44) After we reached the swampy area of Nursery Creek (photo #41), we decided to walk along the edge of the swamp instead of trying to find the foot track. There hasn't been much rain for a while and it is quite dry, easy to walk on.
- Upper pic: In the direction of we are going
- Lower pic: Looking backward

Back at the trail head

45) Back at the trail head of today's walk ... at the metal box containing a log book for hikers to register their walks. See also photo #5.

46) Our entry, red arrow, in the log book ~~~
- Not many people climb Mt Mavis. In this page, besides us, only one other group went there.
- The Canberra Bushwalking Club is supposed to climb Mt Mavis 2 days earlier, on 14 Dec, led by Jonathan Miller. Strange ... why didn't they log their entry here ???

Back at Nursery Swamp Carpark

47) Back at Nursery Swamp Carpark and found this mushroom

Sunset at Condor, ACT

48) Back in Canberra, in the suburb of Condor, I notice the setting sun lights up these clouds in a beautiful pink colour. Whilst pink clouds at sunset is common, this one is unusual in that the clouds are towards north-east and the sun is setting on the west.